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Lloyd brothers found a baseball dynasty

The Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame has announced the induction of the Lloyd family of the Lloyd District near Swift Current into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame, Family Category, Saturday, Aug. 20 at Battleford, Saskatchewan.
lloyd brothers
The nine Lloyd brothers, left to right, Woodrow, Lewis, Truman, Clifford, Leo, Percy, Bruce, Arthur and Clarence. Photo submitted

The Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame has announced the induction of the Lloyd family of the Lloyd District near Swift Current into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame, Family Category, Saturday, Aug. 20 at Battleford, Saskatchewan.

Nine Lloyd brothers, having moved from the United States, settled in the Lloyd District where, on the farm, they found time to play baseball. Their father had also played baseball when he was young.

Lewis, one of the brothers, played baseball as a child on the sand lots while two of his brothers played senior ball while in the United States. When they moved to Canada they felt fortunate to settle among others who played baseball.

The brothers were part of the Antelope Lake Baseball Club. Team players included the famous George Young, one of the best pitchers in southern Saskatchewan, along with his brothers Newt and Ed and Julius and Al Tolfson, Hank Starr, Joe Tice and Bill Benjamin.

The boys were all clean living and  hard working, thus always in good shape. All would train early in the spring. They played many tough games against Swift Current, who were playing semi-pro baseball and imported from the old Canada Western League and from the United States. The Antelope Lake ball team defeated Swift Current more often than Swift Current defeated Antelope Lake.

Every town had a baseball team and leagues were formed as well as baseball tournaments. The team nearly always took home some money that they used to purchase a piano for the school, flooring for the school that they put in, as well as other community needs. Sometimes, if there was money left, they would divide it amongst the players.

There were as many as five of the brothers on the Antelope team at one time.

On occasion, the nine Lloyd brothers played together as a team. Two of the brothers, Art [Shortie] and Cliff, were good catchers and both were hard hitters. Art had the highest average of .500 one year that won him a trip to the World Series in New York that year. Another brother had a wicked throwing arm.

Lewis [Lewie] played many different positions during his baseball career from pitching in sandlot, through his teens, to outfield, third base and what he liked the best, first base, as an adult. He was a fair long-ball hitter, a good base runner and was good at stealing bases and sliding. He played regular baseball until he was 45 years old then just the odd game after that but then coached and umpired. Lewis played a game with Moose Jaw against Regina when he was 50 years old.

Lloyd Lewis now resides in Saskatoon.